AHDB Cereals & Oilseed At Cereals 2015

The Event

Cereals is the UK’s leading technical event for the arable industry attended by over 25,000 farmers, agronomists and industry professionals. Cereals 2015 (10-11 June) was hosted on a working farm at Boothby Graffoe in Lincolnshire, and was reported to be the largest, most well attended event to date.

The occasion was also chosen by AHDB’s chairman Peter Kendall and chief executive officer Jane King as the perfect place to launch the organisation’s new, simplified range of brands – calling for a stand capable not only of showcasing the brands but offering a wide range of interactive displays, visitor facilities and more.

Design Brief

The Design Brief was incredibly broad encompassing the majority of the 9000+m² site made up of variety plots, marquees and outdoor display areas. A substantial element was to create a completely new look and feel for every item of artwork on site.

These had to provide continuity and a natural flow between information and areas, as well as incorporating the new AHDB branding – no mean feat when this was only officially release for use at the end of April. However using the ADHB colour pallet we created a template of interconnecting tramlines and circles that was striking, professional and blended seamlessly across site.

The build began on 2 June with over 600m² of wooden decking laid as the platform for eight gazebos that were to feature the AHDB’s many R&D services and consumer marketing campaigns, as well NABIM, an industry co-exhibitor. Three imposing Project Towers and four Media Towers were then constructed to provide key departmental information, hold literature and offer visitors up to the minute news and tour details using latest outdoor large format screens and tickers.

Outdoor screens protected by all-weather housing were embedded in the technical soil pits to show research videos.

Nearly 300 individual pieces of signage were created and installed from flags, to variety and treatment boards.
The interior of the first marquee was transformed into an attractive visitor refreshment area to reflect many of the features of the newly opened AHDB headquarters – including contemporary furnishings and innovative ways to display, distribute and store the organisation’s many publications.

Inside the second marquee we created an exhibition celebrating 50 Years of the AHDB including an Export Zone with interactive Growers Challenge, Skills & Training video booth, Machinery & Robotics display. It had also to include dedicated co-exhibitor display stands for co-exhibitors, Red Tractor and MAGB.

A comfortable private AHDB staff area was produced with indoor and outdoor seating, well stocked sandwich chillers, hot and cold drinks machine, lockable storage as well as staff only toilets.

“We’ve had fantastic feedback about the quality of the stand, the innovative displays of our work and how easily our staff were able to engage with levy payers and industry stakeholders over the two days. Winning best stand at the show was just the icing on the cake.”

AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds Director Rebecca Geraghty.

In Summary

Symbiosis successfully managed a rapidly changing brief within both the budget constraints and the tough deadlines. Not only that, but our work won “The Best in Show” award in a huge industry-leading event. There was a lot riding on the success of the AHDB rebranding –and we were able to deliver across the whole range of our performance targets.